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Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Found the McCarrys in 1940

I think I was spoiled yesterday finding my father's family so easily in the 1940 Census. I thought it would be even easier to find my mother's family. But I had a surprise!

I knew that they moved around on McClellan Street in Philadelphia. I knew the house number and the ed from 1930. I also knew the house number was different in the 1950 phone book. That was the house I remembered and that is the house where my grandfather died in 1957.

So I started with the 1930 ed and converted it to 1940. The conversion gave me 2 1940 districts to look at. These had McClellan Street and a couple of others on them of course. I found the house they lived in on the 1930 Census. It was not them. I found the 1950 address, it was not them again. I looked through both districts and did not find them. How could this be? I thought they always lived on McClellan Street! Ok, what next? I went back and asked for a larger area. I started looking in the districts following the two I started with. Went through three more districts and then part way through the fourth there they were in the middle of the page. They were on Fitzgerald Street! My Nana gave the information. They were paying $28 a month for rent. My grandfather, James, was still a conductor for the Penn railroad. He earned $2500 in 1939, he was 38 and they lived in the same place in 1935. My mother was 14, her sister 16 and her brother was 11.

I was hoping for another answer in this census. Last year when I found my grandparents marriage license I was puzzled by the fact that it said my grandmother was 18 when they married in 1920. She had always told us that she was 15. I could not understand why they had done this. Her father had signed for her. I did find that a Philadelphia marriage law states that persons under 16 have to have a ruling by an orphans court judge besides having a parent ok in order to marry. Maybe they did not want to go this extra step, so they lied about her age. They 1930 census they seemed to carry on the little white lie. So I was wondering if it would continue for 1940. Well it did NOT! her age in the census is 34, this would make her born in 1905, because her birthday is in May. 1905 is the birth year on her death certificate!

So far this census is a great find, but I have lots more to find. So I will keep looking!!!!!

About Me

Hi, I am a mom of 5 "grown" kids, with three daughter's-in-law and 9 grandchildren thrown in. I have loved family history since I was little listening to stories my grandmothers would tell. When I was talking about what I do to someone, they said "I guess you would have to like your family to want to do this". I do love my family and the more I learn about them, the more I love all of them. Right now I am working on getting the education to become a Professional Genealogist and become Certified.

My other love is Photography. Love taking pictures, my husband called me "the family photographer"